Trademark Issue Forces The War Z To Change Its Name To…

… Something Less Catchy

Once again the folks at Hammerhead Games are in the spotlight with their MMO Zombie Survival game The War Z, this time due to a trademark issue that many have felt was only a matter of time. In a post on the official forums, it was announced that as of yesterday the game would be relabelled as Infestation: Survivor Stories.

“This change has come about primarily as a result of some confusion and trademark issues with a similarly titled property” said community manager Kewk in a statement on the change. “While we were reluctant to rename the game so long after launch, especially with nearly 1 million registered players, it was ultimately decided to be in the best interest of our existing community as well as future players in order to eliminate confusion.” He goes on to reassure the community that the change would not affect the players, with “no interruption of service or change in content” beyond the name and the logo.

There has been no word on whether the trademark conflict is with DayZ, which many gamers have felt The War Z unceremoniously mimicked, or if it was with World War Z, the best-selling novel that will soon be getting a (very loosely connected) movie tie-in starring Mr Bradgelina. Either way, this isn’t the first time The War Z / ISS has been in the news, having suffered from a tidal wave of consumer backlash last year in light of falsely advertised features that were not actually in the game.

I would be very very dissappointed, but would highly expect, to hear that it was due to World War Z. Oh those poor movie studios would be so hard done by if we thought this game was in any way related to the film.
The only thing I can think of is if they are making or thinking of making a terrible, awful awful pointless movie tie-in game.
Still, it's just speculation.